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Thx. I am going to make non unique pages "noindex, nofollow" and I am going to get rid of "rel=next prev". This keeping "follow" on noindex pages is so minor and I think might hurt my site since it allows Google to read what is on those pages....(non unique duplicate looking content).
I will update in a few months with the results.
" lot of people think that noindexing duplicate content is "best practice"... but I am not sure that is true when you have a lot of duplicate content that is out there on a lot of other websites. Google is probably saying... "Oh no! Another one!"
If I add page 2 to n and specific property pages to robots.txt that would sent a stronger signal to Google and Google may not say "oh no, another one"?
Does my logic make sense?
Thx a lot. You really know your stuff. Maybe I should add those noindex pages to robots.txt instead and get rid of "rel=next prev" signals. Basically isolate page 1 as a stand alone page and in this way search engines do not see pages 2 to n with the "noindex, follow" tag.
I have added "noindex, follow" on page 2 to n as well. View all not possible. I only index pages where I have unique quality content added. Therefore, I also have many similar pages where page 1 is also "noindex, follow" and all property pages noindex, follow.
I have basically done everything to only index high quality pages and none of the MLS pages that look like on 100+ other real estate websites...
Thx very much. Ex: http://www.honoluluhi5.com/oahu/honolulu-homes/
As you will see, I have lots of quality unique content below the fold and all pictures in slideshow below the fold are my original photos. My pages are higher quality than any competitor but do not rank. I suspect a reason is the unique content is below the fold. I do understand link profile still isn't strong (9 month old site) but the link profile is still relative to many competitors strong.
Idea I am playing with is to reduce map to 1/4 the size (chop 75% off) and place unique content higher.
Your opinion would be highly appreciated.
I have a page with a Google Map taking up 80% of space above the fold (rest is content which is not unique to my site) and all unique written content and copyrighted pictures are from a visual stand point right below the fold. I am considering making the Google map 1/4 in size so I can get my unique content up higher. Questions:
Thank you
I have a folder "testing" within my domain which is a folder added to the robots.txt. My web developers use that folder "testing" when we are creating new content before uploading to an indexed folder. So the content is uploaded to the "testing" folder at first (which is blocked by robots.txt) and later uploaded to an indexed folder, yet permanently keeping the content in the "testing" folder. Actually, my entire website's content is located within the "testing" - so same URL structure for all pages as indexed pages, except it starts with the "testing/" folder.
Question: even though the "testing" folder will not be indexed by search engines, is there a chance search engines notice that the content is at first uploaded to the "testing" folder and therefore the indexed folder is not guaranteed to get the content credit, since search engines see the content in the "testing" folder, despite the "testing" folder being blocked by robots.txt? Would it be better that I password protecting this "testing" folder?
Thx
Hi Lee, In my 2nd message I included these URL's:
Hahaione condos pages: http://www.honoluluhi5.com/oahu/honolulu/hawaii-kai/hahaione-condos/
Hahaione houses page: http://www.honoluluhi5.com/oahu/honolulu/hawaii-kai/hahaione-homes/
Obviously, 2 different URL's. Do you have any evidence or detailed blog posts showing that using same wording in breadcrumbs or inter-linking in general to different URL's is OK, as long as the URL and / or H1 clearly shows what the page is about?
Again, my concern comes from the fact that I have been sold if I interlink with the anchor "Example" then I need to make sure "Example" always points to the same landing page, as search engine's otherwise will be left confused. I somehow think this line of thought is outdated, but any evidence or insight to clarify would be helpful
HI Lee, In my opinion changing the URL to include the word "condos" in top level is close to not important. H1 keywords should be much more relevant.
You are saying: Unless top level in URL have the word "condos" in it, then I need to use the word "condos" for the anchor of each breadcrumb, is that what you are saying?
In other words, having the word "condos" in top level of URL makes search engines understand it is a condos page and that is why. I am saying, wouldn't search engines based on my H1 which always has the word "condos" perfectly understand this is a condos page and that is reason why using same anchor for breadcrumbs for condos page and houses page is perfectly fine?
I do not worry about URL strucuture, my question relates to anchor text in breadcrumbs.
should each breadcrumb link be "oahu home" "Honolulu homes" etc etc and for condos "oahu condos" "Honolulu condos" etc etc..OR
Should I use just 1 word "oahu" for both the houses pages and the condos page? In which case anchor text becomes identical....
Thank you for the details. Let me give an example and if you could let me know what anchor you'd put in the breadcrumbs that would be great:
Hahaione condos pages:
http://www.honoluluhi5.com/oahu/honolulu/hawaii-kai/hahaione-condos/
Hahaione houses page: http://www.honoluluhi5.com/oahu/honolulu/hawaii-kai/hahaione-homes/
Thank you
This is real estate website related. For every neighborhood I have a "condos" and "houses" page. In the breadcrumb structure I may have: "home > island condos > city condos > region condos > neighborhood condos". Questions:
Some breadrumb structures have 5-6 different breadcrumb link and repeating the word "condos" in each link seems redundant. Would it be better just to list "island", "city", "region", "neighborhood" and never use the word "condos" or "houses" in the breadcrumbs? For users this would be better.
If I implement what I suggest in 1) - deleting "condos" or "houses" wording from breadcrumb links, then on a condos page the word "region" (as an example) will lead to the "region condos" page whereas the exact same word "region" on a house page will lead to the "region houses" page. This means I will have a situation where the anchor text in breadcrumbs become 100% identical for my "condos" and "houses" pages, however, the they lead to different pages. Is this OK? I have in past been told that when I use internal anchor text, that the link should always leads to the same page. Having same anchor leading to different pages would not be good….is that so?
thank you
Category A spans over 20 pages (not possible to create a "view all" because page would get too long). So I have page 1 - 20. Page 1 has unique content whereas page 2-20 of the series does not. I have "noindex, follow" on page 2-20. I also have rel=next prev on the series.
Question: Since page 2-20 is "noindex, follow" doesn't that defeat the purpose of rel=next prev? Don't I run the risk of Google thinking "hmmm….this is odd. This website has noindexed page 2-20, yet using rel=next prev."
Even though I do not run the risk, what is my upset in keeping rel=next prev when, again, the pages 2-20 are noindex, follow.
thank you
follow backlinks. site artchitecture and quality of content way above competition. I see businesses buying up 100+ keyword rich domains and ranking well for all domains. It tells me 2 things: 1) search engines are not always that clever, 2) I need to be patient, because of 1).
thanks for the answer. "...placement of the content (above the fold, bellow the fold ..) it's important for ranking - it's not what makes your page rank or don't rank that high" - I am not sure if you are saying it is important or not?
If you look at the URL I sent: http://www.honoluluhi5.com/oahu/honolulu-homes/ - besides the 10 MLS real estate listings on the left side (which all Realtors share), the content lower on the page is all unique - aerial photos, written overview, history of the area and advanced statistical data. My website has only been live for 8 months, has relatively few backlinks (though more than most competitors already, and all natural links - several high quality).
Do we have evidence that Google has tightened the grip and it is tougher for new websites to rank quickly? I am puzzled what may be the reason for the lack of those pages ranking well yet and I think location of the unique content too low on the page may be a main factor. Some insight would be appreciated.
I have 1 page that ranks well with unique written content located high up on page (http://www.honoluluhi5.com/new-condos-in-honolulu/). I struggle to rank for 200+ other pages where unique content requires scrolling (ex: http://www.honoluluhi5.com/oahu/honolulu-homes/). I am thinking to do as follows:
With unique content higher on page, I expect bounce rate to increase about 10% (based on the 1 page I have with unique content higher), but I think it is worthwhile, as I am sure search engines will start having my pages rank higher.
Hi Pete, I just wanted to confirm, based on what you wrote:
"I don't think the picture- and video-heavy pages are going to rank all that well by themselves. It's just a question of whether those additional pages are diluting your MLS listing pages (by using similar regional keywords, etc.)."
I did following:
My hypothesis is that over the next few months as G gets a better idea of my website (as the site gets more popular - still only 5 months old) G will know what to rank for "neighborhood homes for sale" search terms.
Makes sense?
if I understand you correctly, this sounds like an issue I am facing and this is what I am experiencing and maybe that can be of help. My site is real estate related.
Page 1 title tag: "City Homes for Sale" (page I want to rank for)
Page 2 title tag: "City Home Picture Gallery" (lots of original pictures and videos I want G to index in order to increase the amount of unique content from my site G is indexing, but I don't care much for - more a page for users to see beautiful pictures)
Unfortunately, when users search for "city homes for sale" on search engines, often this Page 2 type will show (I have a lot of Page 2 types for various neighborhoods). I guess because Page 2 has more unique content it ranks well, also because it uses words "City" and "home" in title tag. I have now taken the word "Home" out of title tag and I look forward to see if it helps. Not just in terms of dropping ranking for Page 2 (which would be great), but more importantly will search engines be able to get the point that Page 1 is the relevant page. I am interlinking from Page 2 to Page 1 in a logical way with appropriate keywords. It should be crystal clear, but our supposed super smart / advanced search engines do not seem to get it.
Conclusion: As a smaller / less authoritative website, I would definitely be very careful with keyword selection in title tag, as my site has proven that it can work against you. Large powerful websites can get away with more of this I believe and search engines seem to understand them much better. Therefore, I find with SEO advice it is so important to consider if the perspective is in comparison to similar authority websites.
Thats right. Zero search value. Maybe I can simply change Title tag, H1 etc. Get rid of keyword (ex "Honolulu") a d instead call ("Gallery 1"). In this way I can keep structure without diluting ranking potential for MLS result pages?